In May, after a wonderful week in El Paso and Carlinville, I was excited to get home and start back up hard in the itineration trail. However, a week or so after I returned home, I found out that I will no longer be going to Togo. Though Phil’s (my mentor missionary’s) cancer treatments are going well, his doctors have advised him that it would be at least a year before they would be comfortable telling him he could return to Togo. This means that my team is now finding other places to serve. For a minute, I felt a bit sorry for myself, since it felt like I was back to square one and starting over in this process. But I know that none of this is about me, and I figure being flexible is a pretty key element of what I’m working toward, and I was excited for whatever the Lord was leading me to.
Several members of my Togo team are going to work in the Ivory Coast, doing similar ministries to what we were to do in Togo. But each of them felt a strong calling that they were to serve in Africa. I haven’t felt things quite as specifically, and left it open for God to send me somewhere completely different if that was his plan. And it seems like that’s his plan! 🙂
I began talking with a missionary that I had connected with during my initial steps of the process a couple years ago. After many emails and zoom calls, I am taking that first step again and making plans to head to Cochabamba, Bolivia, working with Justin and Janet Henry at the Bolivian Hope Center (BHC).
Though the day-to-day ministries are currently being affected by Covid restrictions, the BHC is at its core a refuge for children. They provide meals, tutoring, and training for children in the neighborhood. It is a home where up to 36 children will have their own beds instead of sleeping on the prison floors with their mothers. It includes a ministry that cares for the younger children that remain inside the prison: providing them with meals, clothing and Biblical training. There is a feeding program five days a week for all the remaining children inside the prison. There are plans for a halfway house type of ministry for the women leaving the prison, with housing and training facilities, as well as the chance to reconnect mothers with their children. There are additional ministries to the unreached people groups of Bolivia, which will start back up once overland travel is allowed again.
I’m excited for what God had in store for me there, or where ever (in case he decides to make me pivot again:)). He is faithful, and I will continue to trust that this call to missions is his plan for me, even if I don’t understand every part of the process.
Will you continue to pray with me as I ask people to join me as financial partners on this journey?
hismerciesarenew 